Beetle causing headache for NEISD By Jennifer R. Lloyd [email protected] Updated 12:30 a.m., Sunday, October 9, 2011
http://www.mysanantonio.com/news/education/article/Beetle-causing-headache-for-NEISD-2209744.php It's brown, eyeless and lives in a cave. Though this creature may sound like a fairytale villain, it's actually an endangered ground beetle — Rhadine exilis — whose habitat is threatened by Bexar County's urbanization and population growth, according to the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service. Black Cat Cave, which lies under Bulverde Road south of Evans Road, is one of the few caves in the world thought to be the home to the tiny invertebrate. It's close to the 81-acre site of a proposed middle school that North East Independent School District plans to build if voters approve a $399.4 million bond proposition on Nov. 8. The school district and a real estate development company with property nearby have asked the government to remove Black Cat Cave from the beetle's critical habitat list, claiming the beetle does not live in the cave and possibly never did. USFWS officials said they'll consider that information before issuing a ruling in February. The beetle measures less than half the diameter of a dime and eats cave crickets' eggs or small organisms that live on cave cricket feces. Changes to the vegetation around the cave could impact the crickets' foraging area, and thus reduce the beetles' food supply, according to the USFWS. The beetles' habitat — limited to about 50 limestone caves in north and northwest Bexar County — faces threats from the filling of caves during development, capping and sealing cave entrances, human contact, and changes to drainage patterns and native plants that live on the surface. Another threat is contamination from runoff, pesticides and sewer leaks. “(The endangered invertebrates) are part of the state's natural history and they represent a unique ecosystem in the Texas Hill Country,” said Adam Zerrenner, an Austin-based USFWS field supervisor. Proposed expansion Last winter, the USFWS proposed expanding critical habitat areas for nine Bexar County invertebrates, including this beetle. The 250-foot-long Black Cat Cave also is part of the Edwards Aquifer recharge zone, said Bill Seawell, a USFWS biologist. “If that area is a clean, well-functioning ecosystem for these species, then there's a good chance that it's also good for the Edwards,” Zerrenner said. “If the water is clean, then it would be good for people.” The proposed expansion would increase the 40-acre critical habitat area around Black Cat Cave to 187 acres, which would overlap part of the district-owned site for the proposed school. The critical habitat designation doesn't require restoration or recovery measures unless the project uses federal dollars or is on federal property. If voters approve the bond, the school would not be built with federal dollars. The district designed the site plan to use culvert bridges across a creek bed without touching it because the bed is considered federal property and touching it would trigger those additional federal requirements. “Our construction plan is well thought-out and will have no impact on the Black Cat Cave area or any endangered species in this area,” Garrett Sullivan, the district's executive director of construction management and engineering, said in an email. The $65 million building, one of 18 projects in the bond proposal, would alleviate overcrowding and likely would be the last middle school the district will construct, according to officials at the area's second-largest district. Anthony Athens, the district's director of planning, said enrollment at the closest middle school to the bond project, Tejeda Middle, has been capped since 2009. School crowding Athens said 180 students in Tejeda's attendance zone have to attend Bush, Driscoll and Lopez middle schools. By 2020, the district projects another 850 middle school students will live in Tejeda's attendance zone. “Without this new middle school, we just do not have the capacity north of 1604, and we will be forced to change boundaries,” North East Superintendent Brian Gottardy told the school board during a recent meeting. The nearly 209,000-square-foot school would accommodate 1,250 to 1,500 students and incorporate green building features such as a water reclamation system. It might achieve LEED Silver rating, the second step up on the LEED scale for school construction, Sullivan said. The district also strives to preserve “natural vegetative zones” at school sites, he said. Zerrenner said he had not received any information about the possible school and could not comment on whether it would threaten the beetle. He said the district could approach USFWS to discuss whether the district should create a habitat conservation plan. Richard Heilbrun, a Texas Parks and Wildlife Department biologist, said those building near an endangered species habitat could come to both Texas Parks and Wildlife and the USFWS for guidance on whether modifying the construction plan or mitigating harm by preserving land elsewhere would be necessary. “People tend to hear endangered species and become alarmed,” Heilbrun said. “But there are almost always opportunities to make small changes for the benefit of both the project and the natural resource.” If a property owner harms an endangered species without such an agreement, that person could face civil penalties, such as fines or forced mitigation, said Eric Jumper, a USFWS special agent. Development planned Capital Foresight Limited Partnership, a real estate development company based in California, owns about 30 acres of commercial property within the beetle's critical habitat. It petitioned USFWS to remove the critical habitat designation from the company's land. In April, an attorney for the North East ISD filed a letter of support. Gil Berkovich, a partnership manager, said the company plans to develop single-family homes in the area. The petition, submitted by SWCA Environmental Consultants on behalf of the company, states that despite multiple surveys of the cave, no one has seen or collected a specimen since the 1987 initial report of the beetle in Black Cat Cave. The petition suggests that the beetle labeled Rhadine exilis was actually a different species. “If they don't remove the designation, for somebody like me it makes it extremely difficult to obtain financing or sell it,” Berkovich said. “You can't understand how much money and delay this has caused us.” The petition also claims road construction on Bulverde has compromised the cave's integrity. The city is widening the road from two to six lanes, which will be done by 2013, said Roland Martinez, spokesman for the city's Capital Improvements Management Services. The city's consultant surveyed the cave and found no beetles, according to a statement from the department. The city continues to send survey results to USFWS annually. “If the cave was a real problem, they wouldn't be building a (six)-lane road,” Gottardy said. Allan Cobb, president of the nonprofit Texas Cave Management Association, said the debate over the status of Black Cat Cave emphasizes the importance of protecting the area's biological diversity. “While this one cave, in the grand scheme of things, may be fairly insignificant, it's part of the overall picture,” said Cobb, who has seen some caves destroyed while others were developed around with minimal impact. “Any cave where you have endangered species living, they're competing for our resources. ... People want to build. People want to live there. ... Oftentimes, those two things are at odds.” Staff Writer Colin McDonald and News Research Director Michael Knoop contributed to this report. 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